Coach Hoang Anh Tuan: "Indonesia is more formidable than Thailand for U22 Vietnam"

(Dan Tri) - Former coach of U23 Vietnam, Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan, assessed that the current U22 Vietnam team is a very strong candidate for the 33rd SEA Games championship. It will not be difficult for us to pass the group stage.

At 4:00 p.m. this afternoon (December 3), the U22 Vietnam team will begin their journey at the 33rd SEA Games, with a match against the U22 Laos team. Coach Kim Sang Sik's team came to this year's Southeast Asian Games as a strong candidate for the championship.

Mr. Kim Sang Sik's predecessor in the Vietnam U22/U23 team, Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan highly appreciated our opportunities and predicted the journey of the Vietnam U22 team at the 33rd SEA Games.

One day before the match in Thailand, Coach Hoang Anh Tuan had a chat with Dan Tri reporter, discussing our strength compared to our opponents in the region, and the opportunity for the U22 Vietnam team to win a Gold Medal.

Coach Hoang Anh Tuan highly appreciates the opportunities of U22 Vietnam (Photo: Do ​​Minh Quan).

Championship contenders often have their own strategies.

Against U22 Laos, who are weaker than us, do you think U22 Vietnam needs a big win or just 3 points and a moderate victory on the opening day is enough?

- Considering the balance of power between Vietnam and Laos football, Vietnam football is much stronger than Laos football. Vietnam U22 team is also much stronger than Laos U22 team.

Of course, in football, you cannot be subjective, but the possibility of the U22 Vietnam team defeating the U22 Laos team is very likely to happen. However, in my opinion, the U22 Vietnam team does not necessarily have to win too much in the opening match. Our top priority is 3 points, not to compete on goal difference.

With only 3 teams in the group, goal difference is not really important. U22 Vietnam must win against U22 Malaysia in the next match of the group stage. Moreover, we are playing to aim to reach the final match, not just play one match and that's it.

Could you elaborate on this point, sir?

- Every coach in the world has a long-term plan when entering cup competitions. No coach wants his team to go all out and reveal all their strengths after the first match.

Coach Kim Sang Sik has a long-term strategy for U22 Vietnam? (Photo: VFF).

Most likely, coach Kim Sang Sik is the same, he has also done this several times in international tournaments of Vietnamese teams in the past, so winning over U22 Laos on the opening day may not be the priority of U22 Vietnam.

Overall, other candidates for the championship such as U22 Thailand and U22 Indonesia often choose the same path.

Thailand in the past is an example. Even at the time when they were strongest, they still started the tournaments in Southeast Asia quite slowly, sometimes many people thought they were weaker than their real strength. Only when going deep into the tournaments mentioned above, Thailand became more formidable, strong teams became more formidable. That is often the strategy of strong teams.

U22 Thailand and Indonesia are tough opponents, U22 Malaysia will find it difficult to stop U22 Vietnam

So compared to the strongest teams at this SEA Games, where does U22 Vietnam stand?

- In theory, as I said, U22 Thailand and U22 Indonesia are strong teams. Thailand has home field advantage, the foundation of Thai football is among the top in Southeast Asia. However, the U22 Thailand team came to the 33rd SEA Games with many problems.

The Thai National Championship is still taking place during the SEA Games, and Thai-League clubs do not want to give up all their best players in the 22-year-old age group to the Thai U22 team.

In this respect, the U22 Vietnam team has an advantage over the U22 Thailand team. The domestic league and the domestic teams fully support the U22 Vietnam team, the team of coach Kim Sang Sik is given priority for the best personnel, for the goal of competing for the SEA Games gold medal.

Vietnamese youth football develops steadily (Photo: Do ​​Minh Quan).

What about U22 Indonesia and U22 Malaysia, sir? These are the teams that Vietnamese football fans are currently very interested in.

- As for Indonesia, this team has developed youth football quite well recently. The U17 and U19 teams of Indonesia have won against the representatives of Vietnamese football in regional tournaments several times in recent years. This is a very formidable opponent, but that does not mean that we are weaker than them.

Firstly, in some specific times, when the Indonesian U17 and U19 teams beat the Vietnamese U17 and U19 teams in previous years, they had the advantage of playing at home, which is very important for youth tournaments. Secondly, each stage is different, Vietnamese youth football has also developed very steadily in the past few years.

In fact, when they reached the age of 22 or 23, the Vietnamese teams won against the same age teams of Indonesian football. That means they are strong, but U22 Vietnam can still win against them, when we promote our strengths well.

As for Malaysian football, they currently have too many problems. They are in crisis, especially at the national team level. The succession in Malaysian youth football is not good, mainly relying on naturalized players. Therefore, the possibility of U22 Vietnam defeating U22 Malaysia to pass the group stage is not difficult.

Abundant human resources

On the U22 Vietnam side, will the injury of captain midfielder Van Truong affect coach Kim Sang Sik's team?

- It is not true to say that it has no influence, because Van Truong is one of the best players, with the most stable performance of U22 Vietnam in the past long time. He even played for the national team.

Not only Van Truong, the fact that Bui Vi Hao cannot wear the U22 Vietnam team shirt is also a pity. Bui Vi Hao is also a national player and a player with high professional quality. Maybe he has not recovered from injury, not in the best condition after a long time off from competition.

Van Truong's injury (right) does not affect U22 Vietnam's chance of winning the SEA Games gold medal (Photo: VFF).

However, in the SEA Games arena alone, the above-mentioned absences have not made us lose our position as a bright candidate for the championship. U22 Vietnam is still extremely strong in the SEA Games arena despite the absence of the above-mentioned important players.

So what is the strongest point of U22 Vietnam at the moment, sir?

- Consistency is our great strength. In the U22 Vietnam squad, there are still players who can replace those who are injured or have not reached their best physical condition. The remaining members are still strong enough to help U22 Vietnam aim for a gold medal at this Southeast Asian Games.

We can look at the following details to see the uniformity of U22 Vietnam. We have so much resources that after Van Truong was injured, Coach Kim Sang Sik was still able to eliminate another character, capable of replacing Van Truong in the midfield, that is Duc Viet.

That reflects that coach Kim Sang Sik has formed a good personnel plan in the midfield, and he has enough personnel to build a strong midfield. It also means that the remaining factors are still capable of creating uniformity for the whole team, considering the SEA Games arena.

Thank you for the conversation!

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/hlv-hoang-anh-tuan-indonesia-dang-gom-hon-thai-lan-voi-u22-viet-nam-20251203011403148.htm